Toyota Survey

Absolutely. It's really not your problem when their issues and allocations are -- you're a consumer and have a right to make reasonable requests; a $3150 tax credit is certainly the basis of a reasonable request. If you're not happy because they couldn't fulfill it, speak your mind so that Toyota knows.

 

You do not owe the dealer or the dealership anything. Fill out the survey, send it back and wash your hands of it. You should have a free form area where you can state specifically what upset you about the purchase and what they could have done to avoid lower marks in certain areas.

It is particularly tasteless of the dealer to ask you to rate him a specific way. However he is in sales and as such he figures that if you don't rank him highest in all areas, then he missed the mark someplace and he is looking for a way to correct it. However, the mistake made was your delivery date and as such there is little he can do to correct that one now.

 

Those manufacturer's "surveys" are ridiculous. The salesmen and the management at the dealer all have their bonuses directly affected by the surveys. That's why they pressure everyone to answer everything "excellent". I just answer those questions truthfully and hopefully they will actually learn something. If you want to play hardball you can call the salesman and tell him that since their inflexability took money out of your pocket how much is he willing to pay out of his pocket to get that "excellent" rating.

 

When did you order the car and did you specify January delivery?

Frankly, the allocation thing is plain BS.
Every Toyota dealership in the country was facing the same situation.
There's no way their allocation would have taken a hit.

 

Hate to say it, but this playing games with customer satisfaction---certainly not just car dealers---is one of the things that shows how far behind "we" are in some respects. Just another game to beat.

Did you sacrifice a 2006 tax credit or not? If so, do you blame them, yourself, or both equally? Does it matter what you told him at any time before the deal was concluded?

 

It's not a matter of fault or blame -- regardless of the deal, it's how satisfied you were with your transaction. Regardless of what happened, if I went into a dealer and said, "I want it after the new year," and they say, "No, take it now," and I do -- I probably would, but I'm not happy about it.

If someone asked me if I liked the car, I'd say, "Yes, but they didn't hold it for me till the new year." I can see points for going in the other direction, but sometimes I miss "the customer is always right" philosophy if it's a reasonable customer with a reasonable request.

 

There's a post here with the percentage breakdown of how many packages shipped -- #6's were, by far, the most prevailent. Since you agreed to tell him, I'd probably call and give him the courtesy of letting him know that you're not rating tops for everything. If he starts to get irate, hang up on him and mail it -- if he wants to make his customer happy (credits, coupons, whatever), see if you like what he has to say.

We are a free market society -- don't feel shamed by using their feedback methods to voice your true feeling about the transaction. Otherwise it's a useless exercise in information gathering for them.

 

I believe he does.

 

Hell, they asked you to let them know... most places will ask you to contact them first if you don't plan on rating them superior in everything in hopes they'll have an opportunity to turn you into a satisfied customer.

 

Is this really true? I had an awful experience with every Toyota dealer I went to. The only reason I bought my Prius from the dealer I did was because they had the model I was looking for.
I let my salesman really have it in the survey. Personally, if I ran a business and got a survey like mine, I would call to follow up. My salesman told me he would call to check up on me. I've had my Prius for a year now and he never called.

Bob

 

Speak Your Mind!!!!

This is America, and you should feel no guilt about how things went down.

I like the idea of filling the survey out online and to not break any bridges if that is where you plan on having your car serviced.

Great thread..... I was having second thoughts too, as my salesman was really nice, but not exactly up to par on the coolest car in the world. So I will let it reflect just that.

I think the whole thing about calling them if you don't score them an A+ of everything is a bunch of poop. Perhaps if they brought it up another way, such as if you have any questions at all about anything please don't hesitate to call our customer service, that would be one thing. But, the guilt trip is childish.

 

I know it's true with Audi because a friend that used to work there explained it to me once. At Audi the scale was really messed up, they had something like 1 through 5 with 5 being the best. If you were being graded on a test 5 would be 100%, 4 would be somewhere around 60%, 3 would be 40%, 2 - 20% and 1 - 0%. Since it affected their bonuses, and their job security, they would really pressure customers to give all 5's.

I don't know if Toyota USA is the same, but the way their sales force pushes to get all "excellents" I'm guessing it is.

Jeff

 

Our experience with our dealership and sales person have been very good to date.
However, I did find it odd when our sales person came out and got in the back seat and closed the door of our new Prius on Jan. 2 and said, "You'll be getting a survey in about a month. I would appreciate it if you rated our service excellent in every way. Anything other than 'excellent' is considered a 'failure'. If there is anything that I haven't done to make your experience excellent please call me so I can resolve any problem before you fill out the survey."
Interesting to see so many other comments about this request for "excellent" ratings.

 

When we bought our Mazda MPV, we got the same line, the sales guy seemed to more concerned about how we would rate him than anything else. I was honest when I filled out the form, they didn't get all "excellent"s because they didn't deserve them.

For the Prius, the Toyota sales people did not mention the survey. Again, I was honest, I felt high-pressured and cheated on the extended warranty and I made that clear on the survey. Nothing came of it for me, I never heard "boo" from Toyota about my expressed dissatisfaction, but I did hope that it might influence them to be more up front about it. I doubt it, though. There's too much immediate money at stake for them to resist the temptation to use the tried and true sales techniques of high-pressure and lying by omission.

-Roger